


budding lilacs

by Beyond_the_Grace



Series: kindness blooms [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alive Regulus Black, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, GOOD CHILDHOOD, Gen, Good Petunia Dursley, Harry Potter was Raised by Other(s), Lowercase, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Not Ron Bashing, but like not not ron bashing, intentionally lowercase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24543517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beyond_the_Grace/pseuds/Beyond_the_Grace
Summary: in one universe harry travels to hogwarts excited to get away from his aunt's family after a loveless childhood.this is not that universe.join harry as he starts his first year after a great childhood and a less bias informant of the wizarding world.aka the au where harry was raised by regulus and petunia in a loving household(you don't have to read the work prior to understand this at all)
Relationships: Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Minor or Background Relationship(s), background Regulus Black/Petunia Evans Dursley
Series: kindness blooms [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773583
Comments: 12
Kudos: 491





	budding lilacs

harry had been dreading going to hogwarts if he was entirely honest. he’d had a childhood split between the muggle and wizarding world (although a bit insular due to his uncle not wanting him to be overwhelmed by his fame) and was going to miss the small comforts of home. aunt petunia was a muggle and had taught him all about music and history and all the cool muggle things he’d have to leave behind, uncle regulus was the best cook and his cousin was the sweetest kid ever. he’d miss them when he was off learning magic. when he’d expressed this to petunia she’d looked really sad but refused to tell him why. instead she’d told him about his mum and how excited and happy she was whenever she came back from hogwarts.

iris had cried when he said goodbye at the platform, his cousin was definitely going to miss him but regulus had just laughed at the two of them and said that he’d have the time of his life and in a couple weeks iris would have all the joys of being an only child for once. still it had hurt to leave his family behind.

he’d found a compartment to himself and had settled into reading the dennis the menace comic his aunt had packed in his rucksack but had been interrupted very quickly by a boy with shock red hair.

“can i sit here?” the boy asked awkwardly. “everywhere else is full.”

“sure. i’m harry. what’s your name?”

“harry? as in harry potter?” internally harry groaned. whilst regulus had tried to shelter him from the fame - and he had really tried- it hadn’t stopped harry from occasionally being bombarded with ‘fans’ when going shopping in the wizarding world. he didn’t get it, his family died so he was now famous? that was stupid as far as harry was concerned.

“yeah.” harry sighed. “what’s your name?”

“ron weasley,” the boy answered, his eyes focused on harry’s forehead. “so do you remember it?”

“no.” luckily the conversation was interrupted by two boys with the same red hair as ron. probably more weasleys.

“hey ron we’re going down the middle of the train-”

“-lee has a tarantula down there.” the boys spoke in turn. twins.

“uh, okay.”

“see you later, ron, ron’s friend.” and with that they left.

harry turned to ron. “you have brothers? cool.”

“not really, i have five older brothers and a younger sister. it sucks.” ron then perked up. “i heard you were raised by muggles, what’s that like?”

“err, i don’t know who told you that but they were wrong. my aunt’s a muggle but my uncle is a wizard. it’s pretty cool though because then i get all the muggle stuff and the wizarding stuff. plus my aunt always uses muggle solutions for stuff to annoy my uncle.” harry smiled thinking of the time when regulus had accidentally spelled one of iris’s onesies blue from purple and petunia had used fabric dye to get it back to the right colour before regulus could figure out how to undo the spell. “plus muggle music is way better.”

as they headed away from london the two continued to get to know eachother. ron seemed completely fascinated by harry but harry was less sure of the other boy. he was nice enough but seemed quite jealous and brash. harry had been raised by people who were fairly reserved and in comparison ron was very bold. harry put it down to nerves.

the next interruption was a girl looking for a toad but she was pacified by harry suggesting she find a prefect to summon it for her. she looked excited at the prospect of seeing magic and so ran off with barely a thank you. the final interruption was far less easy to deal with.

a boy with a thin pale face and white blond hair came in backed up with two thuggish looking boys. 

“they’re saying that harry potter is on the train. is it you?” the boy said, his voice oddly condescending for a first meeting.

“yeah, who’re you?”

“this is crabbe and goyle.” the boy paused dramatically. “and i’m malfoy, draco malfoy.”

unfortunately this was the moment when ron had to laugh. harry frowned slightly at the red heads reaction. that was a mean way to react to a name. draco seemed to agree.

“no need to ask you yours, my father’s told me all about your family. red hair and more children than they can afford.”

harry turned down the blond boy’s friendship after that comment but if he was completely honest he wanted to reject ron’s as well, neither had been nice and didn’t seem to be for any real reason. regulus had warned him about the prejudice that still existed among wizards against those whose blood was less ‘pure’ but he had also been a slytherin and so ron’s comments about the house after malfoy left had left him with the same sour taste in his mouth. harry had never liked bullying, often standing against it at his primary school and so both sides just came across badly to him.

the remainder of the trip had harry burying his head back into his comic books despite ron’s constant chatter. humming and nodding seemed to be enough to satisfy the boy. he felt bad when he saw ron’s robes didn’t entirely fit but held his tongue. 

harry hated to admit it but he really was nervous. he had no idea what house he would be in and whilst uncle regulus said that it didn’t matter it definitely did. even as adults the houses people had been in were what was used to judge them and he didn’t want anyone to judge him for something like that. he also knew that whatever friends he had would be almost exclusively in his own house and so he hoped he’d be in a house with people he actually got on with. it’d suck if he was stuck with people he didn’t like or who didn’t like him.

they followed the giant man down to some boats where ron and harry ended up with two other boys, one with a thick irish accent and the other who was very obviously muggleborn. they crossed the lack to reveal one of the most beautiful sights harry had ever seen. the castle glimmered with the lakes reflection, it stood proud and stunning from the woodland and cliff faces surrounding it. all in all it was breathtaking. but it was old.

he knew it was a strange thing to consider but his aunt and uncle had always blended muggle and magic so things had always been new, traditions didn’t exist in their household in any way and so to see the old castle he would be living in felt intimidating. their house was a new build and ever changing but this was tradition and the remains left by hundreds of witches and wizards. this was a building made of ghosts.

they were met at the door by a strict woman named professor mcgonagall. she wore all green and had her dark hair pulled back tight. she introduced the concept of sorting as if they didn’t all know about it before leaving them in the entrance hall. everyone broke into chatter about the sorting. harry heard rumours flying about fighting trolls and casting spells. they were interrupted by an echoing voice. 

“-given peeves all the chances he deserved? he gives us a bad name-” ghosts.

“new students? about to be sorted i suppose?” said a fat ghost, ignoring the fearful looks he was attracting. “hope to see you in hufflepuff, my old house you know.”

“move along now, the sorting is about to start.” mcgonagall had returned. “form a line and follow me.”

they were lead through the large doors through to the great hall. lanterns and candles hung in air and the nights sky shone across the ceiling and the girl from earlier explained the enchantment. there were four house all decked out in different colours. the stereotypes were written all over the students at the tables. the house decked in red were being very loud in their chatter, pushing each other around in the earlier years and very obviously eyeing up the first years. the house in yellow were similarly loud (though a little less so) but lacked the rough housing, they were smiling and catching up. the other two houses were far less noisy. the house of blue seemed to be a strange mix of people completely ignoring each other in favour of ‘subtly’ reading or people engaged in heated debate whilst the house in green seemed to be having quiet and polite conversation, the whole house sat with perfect manners. as harry was observing all this the hat had sung a song about the traits of the houses and as the applause stopped mcgonagall started to read names from her list.

“abbott, hannah”

hufflepuff

“bones, susan”

hufflepuff

“boot, terry”

ravenclaw. on it went with the hat calling names of all four houses at various speeds, the girl on the train turned out to be “granger, hermione” who went straight to gryffindor whilst others such as “nott, theodore” stayed under for a lot longer. “malfoy, draco” took seconds and looked very smug about it. soon it was harry’s turn. whispers broke out all across the hall as his name was called, he noticed even teachers sitting up straighter just before the hat was placed on his head.

“what do we have here?” a voice asked in harry’s head. “hmm, plenty of cunning here, lots of potential for bravery and not a bad mind but where to put you?”

“where do i fit?” harry asked back.

“you could fit anywhere you know, but what’s this? kindness? hmm, you aren’t what they expected you to be.”

“aren’t who who expected me to be?”

“none of that…”

then the hat called out

hufflepuff.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading and for the comments and kudos on daisy chain. i had fun writing this and hope to write more in this verse  
> xox Ell
> 
> edit; omg thank you so much for all the love on this as well. im so happy that yall like this concept <3


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